Equipment for high-line transfer



United States Patent inventor Stephen G. Schneller Laval, Quebec, Canada Appl. No. 787,171

Filed Dec. 26, 1968 Patented Dec. 22, 1970 Assignee Peacock Brothers Limited LaSalle, Quebec, Canada a corporation of Canada Priority Oct. 28, 1968 Canada EQUIPMENT FOR HIGH-LINE TRANSFER 6 Claims, 1 Drawing Fig.

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[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 495,205 4/1893 Reinau 187/24 2,231,054 2/1941 Bosick 187/24X 3,012,518 12/1961 Sawyer et a1... 104/114 3,350,820 11/1967 Stonely 214/13 Primary Examiner-Gerald M. Forlenza Assistant Examiner-Frank E. Werner Attorney-Stevens, Davis, Miller & Mosher EQUIPMENT FOR HIGH-LINE TRANSFER The present invention relates to high-line transfer system for transferring loads along a high line extending for example, between two ships at sea. The invention is particularly concerned with equipment carried by a ship for receiving loads transferred along a high line.

Known equipment for receiving loads by high-line transfer systems includes a mast known as a kingpost adapted to be held in erect position on the deck of a ship, and having a highline attachment member to which an end of the high line is attached when the ship is receiving a load. The high-line attachment member, which is termed a padeye, may be vertically movable on the kingpost to allow loads to be lowered onto the deck when they have traversed the high line. A vertically movable attachment member used for this purpose is termed a sliding padeye. In a known design of kingpost described in US. Pat. No. 3,350,820, the padeye is vertically movable on the kingpost by means of chains which pass around pulleys at both ends of the kingpost and also around pulleys held by a nut which runs on a screw coaxial with the post. The screw is driven by a reversible motor mounted at the base of the post to move the nut and the pulleys held thereby, causing tensioning or slackening in the chains to raise or lower the padeye as required.

In this specification, references to vertical" or horizon- I tal" will be understood to mean, respectively, perpendicular and parallel to the deck of the ship, irrespective of the orientation of the deck at any instant.

When the padeye is not is use it is desirable that the post be stowed, for example, by being lowered into trucking below the deck level. For this purpose a deck fitting is provided which can support the base of the kingpost at deck level or thereabouts when the kingpost is erected in the operative position, the deck fitting being disengageable from the base of the kingpost to allow the kingpost to be stowed when not in use. The stowing of the kingpost may be achieved by lowering the padeye onto the deck fitting so that it supports the weight of the kingpost, securing the padeye to the deck fitting and releasing the base of the kingpost therefrom, and using the same motor driven screw mechanism as is used to raise the padeye on the kingpost to lower the kingpost through the padeye into the trunking below the deck, with the padeye acting as a guide.

To allow for high-line delivery from either side of the ship, the kingpost has generally been rotatably mounted in a bearing carried by a base member, and it is this base member which releasably engages with the deck fitting.

Since there is no need for the base member to rotate, apart from minor amounts of rotation that may be necessary to align this with the deck fitting, in known designs the motor has been mounted on the base member, and connections have been made to the motor by flexible cables which allow for the vertical movement of the base member when the kingpost retracts into the trunking, but which do not have to allow for substantial rotation of the base member. another reason for mounting the motor on the base member has been that the motor has generally been offset from the kingpost axis, and therefore if the motor were to have been mounted directly on the rotatable kingpost the trunking would need to be large enough to accommodate the offset motor when this was carried around on its mounting by rotation of the kingpost in its erected position.

However, it has been found that there are drawbacks with this known arrangement. Firstly, although electrical connections to the motor are simple, there is no simple way of making connections to the kingpost itself, e.g., for limit switches, and such connections have required slip rings or the like. Also, when the kingpost is descending into or rising out of the deck, the reactive torque on the motor should be resisted by runners on the side of the motor or on the base member which engage with tracks on the inside of the trunking and prevent rotation therebetween. The provision of such runners and tracks complicates the manufacture of the base member and trunking, and this arrangement also requires that the trunking be made suitable for resisting the torque of the motor. The invention provides an improved arrangement which overcomes these problems.

According to the present invention, a kingpost assembly comprises a base member which is releasably engageable with a deck fitting, a kingpost rotatable in a hearing held by the base member, a padeye vertically slidable on the kingpost, means for raising and lowering the padeye on the kingpost, said means including a motor attached to the base of the kingpost so as to be rotatable therewith, and means limiting rotation of the kingpost to less than 360.

Due to the limitations on the rotation of the kingpost, it is possible with the arrangement of this invention to use electrical connections to the motor which take the form of simple cable leads, without any devices such as slip rings. Furthermore, it is equally easy to make similar connections to devices such as limit switches in the kingpost since this does not rotate relative to the motor.

Also, there is no need to provide means in the trunking to prevent rotation of the motor by its own reactive torque when the kingpost is being raised or lowered, since the kingpost is guided by the padeye and therefore cannot rotate during these operations.

Further in accordance with the present invention, the motor is coupled to the padeye operating screw and nut mechanism of the kingpost by a concentric gear arrangement, so that the motor is coaxial with the kingpost and the outer extremities of the motor are no further displaced from the axis of the kingposts rotation than are the extremities of the base member. Accordingly, the diameter of trunking required is no greater than that required for the base member itself.

A particular embodiment of the present invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawing which shows a partially sectioned elevation of a kingpost;

For convenience, the drawing omits the central section of the kingpost; in fact, however, the kingpost may be from 15 to 20 feet or more in height.

Referring to the drawing, a kingpost 10 is shown supported by a deck fitting which is indicated generally at 11 and which fits over an opening in the deck 11:: of a ship. Support means for the kingpost includes a base member 12 carrying the outer part of a spherical bearing 13, the inner part of which bearing carries a spigot 14 integral with a square forging 14a forming the base of the kingpost. The base member 12 is releasably engageable with the deck fitting 11 by means which include horizontally rotatable earns 15. This deck fitting is described in more detail in copending US. Pat. application Ser. No. 787,164, filed Dec.26, 1968.

When the kingpost is erected as shown in preparation for receiving loads carried along the high line, the kingpost can be rotated in the bearing 13 to face the desired direction of highline delivery. When so positioned, guy lines or stays (not shown) are attached to lugs 17 which are integral with a top fitting 17a solidly fixed to the top of the kingpost. The stays are suitably tightened to maintain the kingpost in an approximately vertical position, but it may be noted that the spherical bearing 13 allows for some deflection of the kingpost from the vertical position.

A padeye 20, to which the high line is attachable, is shown at the top of the kingpost in a position used for transfer of loads along the high line. Since the manner of fitting of the stays to the top of the post is not such as to allow substantial rotation of the post under load, the padeye is provided with means including a swivel link with a curved runner allowing for the direction of the high-line pull to vary without imposing torques on the kingpost. Such a padeye is described in copending US. Pat. application Ser. No. 787,174, filed Dec. 26, 1968.

The padeye is vertically movable on rollers, such as those shown at 20 a, engaging runners at the corners of the kingpost, the padeye being movable by means of chains actuated by a screw and nut mechanism of the type already referred to. The

screw and nut mechanism and arrangement of chains may be as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,350,820, but a preferred screw and nut mechanism and arrangement of chains is described in copending US. Pat. application Ser. No. 787,165, filed Dec. 26, 1968.

The screw of the screw and nut mechanism, which is coaxial with the kingpost, has a lower extension in the form of a shaft 21, which is driven at its lowest end by a shaft 22 via a flexible coupling 23. The shaft 22 is mounted in roller and ball bearings within the spigot 14 of the kingpost. The shaft is driven by a reversible motor 24 to raise or lower the padeye on the kingpost, through transmission gearing to be described.

The motor 24 is concentrically attached to the lower extremity of the spigot 14 by means of a hollow gear housing 25, the arrangement being such that the motor shaft 28 is coaxial with the post. The outer extremities of the motor are all nearer to the axis of the kingpost than the outer edges of the base member 12 so that when the kingpost is retracted below deck level within the trunking shown at 29, the width of the trunking required to accommodate depends on the dimensions of the base member 12.

The shaft 28 of motor 24 is provided with a gear wheel 30 which meshes with planetary gear wheels 31 rotatable on stub shafts attached to a carrier wheel 32, which carrier wheel is keyed to the shaft 22. The planetary gear wheels 31 also mesh with the internal teeth of an annulus 34 fixed to the gear housing 25. Accordingly, the gear wheels 30, 31 and annulus 34 form an epicyclic gear train giving a speed reduction between the motor shaft and the shaft 22.

Electrical connections to the motor 24 are made directly by way of electrical leads which pass up the trucking 29. In order to prevent undue twisting of the leads to the motor, rotation of the kingpost is limited by interference between a stop 40 attached to the deck fitting at the side of the kingpost, and two adjacent lower corners indicated at 41 of the forging 14a. The two other adjacent corners of the otherwise square forging 14a are cut off so as to clear stop 40 when the kingpost is rotated, but the remaining corners 41 engage on the stop 40 to prevent rotation of the kingpost through more than 270. The relationship between the stop 40 and corners 41 is such that the kingpost can still be set up to face any direction in which the load is required to be transferred.

When it is required to lower the kingpost into the deck, the padeye 20 is first lowered down to the deck fitting by the use of the motor 24 driving the screw and nut mechanism in the normal manner. When the padeye has reached the top of the deck fitting, it is secured thereto by means of bars 43 which are pivotally attached to the deck fitting and which engage lugs 44 on the padeye by means of nuts. At this stage the padeye is supporting the kingpost, and it becomes possible to disengage the base member 12 from the deck fitting, a safety interlock being provided to prevent premature release of the base member before the padeye is in position (see our copending U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 787,164.)

With the deck fitting disengaged in this manner, the screw and nut mechanism normally used for moving the padeye upwards on the kingpost is operated in the same manner to lower the kingpost down through the padeye. The kingpost runs downwardly through the padeye which guides the post and prevents rotation thereof. When the top of the kingpost has reached a convenient height, the guy lines or stays are removed from the attachment points 17, and the kingpost is secured to the deck by bars, (not shown) which engage, by means of nuts, with lugs 45 on the top of the kingpost.

For raising the kingpost prior to commencing high-line transfer, the kingpost is released from the bars and raised and secured in position by a procedure which is the reverse of that outlined.

It will be noted that during lowering and raising of the kingpost any rotation of the kingpost is prevented by the guiding effect of the clamped padeye 20, and the reactive torque of the motor is thus resisted. Accordingly, no rotation of the kingpost is possible from the timethat the padeyfi is secured to the eck, prior to lowering the kingpost, untll e krngpst has again been erected and the padeye is raised. The is thus no possibility of twisting the motor leads during these operations.

Although in this embodiment rotation is limited to less than 270, in fact satisfactory results are achieved if the rotation is limited to less than 360.

Where it is required to incorporate limit switches or other electrical devices in the kingpost, connections to these are easily made in the same manner as are the electrical connections to the motor.

The epicyclic gear arrangement connecting the motor to the screw not only saves space within the trunking 29, but also distributes the transmission forces between greater numbers of gear teeth thus reducing wear on the teeth.

I claim:

1. A kingpost assembly arranged to be mounted on the deck of a ship for receiving loads transferred by a high-line system, comprising a base member which is releasably engageable with a deck fitting, a kingpost rotatable in a bearing held by the base member, a padeye vertically movable on the kingpost, means for raising and lowering the padeye on the kingpost, said means including a motor attached to the base of the kingpost so as to be rotatable therewith.

2. A kingpost assembly as claimed in claim 1 including means limiting rotation of the kingpost to less than 360.

3. A kingpost assembly as claimed in claim 1 including a trunking section adapted to store said post when in retracted position the arrangement and operation of said motor being such that precise alignment of said motor in the trunking section is not necessary in order to exert torque on the motor.

4. A kingpost assembly according to claim 1 wherein the motor is coupled to the padeye raising and lowering means by a concentric gear arrangement so arranged that the motor is coaxial with the kingpost.

5. A kingpost assembly as claim 4 wherein the outer extremities of the motor are no further displaced from the rotational axis of the kingpost than are the extremities of the base member.

6. A kingpost assembly according to claim 4 wherein the concentric gear arrangement is an epicyclic gear train. 

